Breakfast Romanian-Style, with Some Other Breakfast Ideas

Once upon a time, I loved having bagels or English muffins with cream cheese, and some grapefruit juice, for breakfast. These days I mostly eat breakfast Romanian-style . . .

. . . all the while dreaming of those bagels and English muffins, which I would still like to be able to have some of the times. (There's hope: we do have Philadelphia cream cheese now.)

Anyway. The core three elements of that Romanian breakfast, since that's what you're here for, are -- to my mind -- eggs, (telemea) cheese, and tomatoes. This combo may appear as such, with all three foods mentioned above, or can be varied, keeping only one or two foods of that trio, while adding others. Of course, I may also eat two slices of whole-grain bread with butter and a bell pepper, and do away with the eggs, cheese, and tomatoes altogether.

Or I may eat an endive salad with walnuts (more about that some other time), or some other kind of salad, such as one with fruit and veggies and mint (to come). Most of the time I stick to that grapefruit juice, which now I make in-house in a blender, keeping the pulp, and mixing the grapefruit with an orange.

Now, when I followed the Montignac diet, I didn’t drink the grapefruit and orange juice at breakfast. I drank water and ate, say, two eggs with telemea cheese and lettuce salad. Or a slice of whole-grain bread with low-fat cheese and some steamed zucchini. Or a boiled chicken leg with a large tomato. Or boiled salted chickpeas (garbanzo beans) with a tomato. All these are valid breakfast choices, to my mind, but you have to have the juice as well. As I said elsewhere, I believe in combining protein, fats, and carbs.

That egg there is problematic, however. An egg is a complete meal on its own, having all the above nutrients, as well as vitamins (A, D, E, some B vitamins, and others) and minerals (calcium and magnesium, iron, phosphorus, zinc and selenium), but eggs also contain some 200 mg of cholesterol per yolk, which is two thirds of the maximum recommended daily intake. As you eat eggs in baked goods too, nutritionists recommend anything from an egg a day to only one or two eggs a week. Of course, the higher your cholesterol, the less eggs you should eat per week.

But, I think, there are ways to enjoy your eggs and their health benefits (including a reduced risk of age-related macular degeneration) as you lower your cholesterol with the help of oatmeal, eggplant (see an eggplant recipe here), grapefruit, avocado, and other foods. There’s a caveat regarding grapefruit: I could not have imagined grapefruit could hurt anyone, but reading more about its health benefits I found (see this article on grapefruit on WebMD, for instance) that it interacts with several medications, including some that lower your cholesterol, so ask your doctor before eating grapefruit.

Yes, this article was a bit all over the place, but I hope you found some useful nutritional breakfast information in it and some ideas for breakfast. The important thing is to eat a nutrient-filled breakfast. I think I’ll go for oatmeal with strawberries tomorrow. That’s a lot of fiber for you! The strawberries also provide you with lots of vitamin C (one cup contains more vitamin C than the recommended daily intake) and other antioxidants, which protect your immune system, as well as your heart and eyes.

Here’s to healthy breakfast combos!

(I’ll post an image of that oatmeal with strawberries soon for inspiration!)

P.S. Well, as it turns out I didn't go to shop for strawberries in time, so today I went for eggplant salad (spread) instead of that oatmeal.

More easy and healthy recipes, including breakfast ideas, to come!

Here's that promised oatmeal. I used UHT cream, whipped with brown sugar (hence the off-white color). Those who live in Greece don't have to worry about cream: their thick, flavorful Greek-style yogurt with some honey stirred in is better than any whipped cream.

Mira, You mentioned cream whipped with brown sugar and Greek yogurt with honey: both are delicious favorites for me.I feel blessed that grapefruits are not a problem for me. I love them.Many health writers have designated breakfast as the most important meal of the day, so it should impart gusto.Romanian-style breakfast is my kind of breakfast: delicious, energizing, refreshing.